Tag: words

BBC Reports, You Decide

David Miliband quits frontline politics

David Miliband says he is to quit frontline politics after being pipped for the Labour leadership by younger brother Ed.

Just when you think you’ve made it, somebody comes along and pips you.

pip (5) Brit., informal
verb ( pipped , pipping ) [ trans. ] (usu. be pipped)
defeat by a small margin or at the last moment : you were just pipped for the prize.
• dated: hit or wound (someone) with a gunshot.

I see. Well, one or the other, then. Jolly well played, old sport.

Color me gruntled

Turns out Ben Zimmer is taking over the “On Language” column for the NYT. I am stunned. Amongst the various pinch-hitters that have been filling that space since Safire shuffled off his mortal coil, I rated Zimmer’s as superior. Vastly superior, even. This led me to assume that the NYT would either

a) eliminate “On Language”

-or-

ii) hire someone to collect celebrity-themed tweets into a weekly piece in that space.

They have done neither. There is hope.

(via bobulate)

Color me gruntled